Contents - IADR/AADR

CHAPTER THREE: FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE FIRST FIFTH
OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
(Setting of the Stage for the IADR Birth)
Significant organizations do not come into existence de novo: they evolve through many phases before
they attain long-range objectives, especially if those objectives are globally as well as altruistically conceived.
Certainly the International Association for Dental Research was not born by springing forth into existence as
Athene sprang forth (according to ancient Greek mythology);fully armed, shouting a triumphant cry of victory,
and brandishing a sharp javelin, having emerged from the head of Zeus, who was said to have had an intolerable
headache during this time.
THE INTELLECTUAL SETTING
A long series of events and conditions set the stage for the conception and eventual birth of this
Association which was to so enhance dental research. Just how far back in the story of mankind is the thin
thread of research interest discernible? Certain aspects of dental research can, indeed, be traced to the earliest
recorded events in civilization.
Since some kind of primitive dental treatment came into being in antiquity, there must have been a few
nameless persons in those early civilizations who conducted a form of empirical research to separate facts from
fantasies about man's dentition. The papyrus discovered at Thebes by Professor Ebers, dealing with medical
diagnostic procedures accumulated between circa 3700 and 1550 B.C., listed eleven dental prescriptions.
Moreover, the earliest historian, Herodotus, observed that dentistry in Egypt was practiced as a medical
specialty. He wrote that "Egypt is quite full of doctors: those for the eyes, those for the head, some for the
teeth..." One such doctor was Hesi-Ré, who is credited with being the first dentist. Sumerian clay tablets,
Sanskrit records, and ancient Chinese writings attest that there were other persons who must at least empirically
have carried out similar primitive research in order to achieve a few simple truths about the teeth. Between
circa 1000-400 B.C., some of the Etruscans advanced dental prostheses from the "retentive" type of the
Egyptians and Phoenicians to the "restorative" type. Etruscan practitioners used gold, carved artificial teeth, and
fashioned bridges of an advanced design.
It is certain that in the days of ancient Greece men made some accurate observations that were recorded
and gradually separated from mythology. Aesculapius was credited with being the father of surgical tooth
removal. Another Greek designed the odontagogon, an instrument so important for the extraction of teeth that it
was kept in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
It took some careful observations by Aristotle of Macedonia (384- 322 B.C.) to conclude that "figs when
soft and sweet" produced damage to the dentition, causing a putrefactive process in teeth. Even Hippocrates
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR DENTAL RESEARCH (IADR) – THE FIRST FIFTY YEAR HISTORY PAGE 15